- Home
- Live Blog
- Breaking News
- Top Headlines
- Cities
- NE News
- Sentinel Media
- Sports
- Education
- Jobs
The Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson reduces the length of his trip to India scheduled later this month as the COVID 19 situation in India gets worse with every passing day.
"We've been in close contact with the Indian government about the PM's upcoming visit in light of the COVID situation in India. As a result of these discussions, the prime minister has made the decision to reduce the length of the visit," the spokesperson of Boris Johnson told the reporters.
The spokesperson also added by saying that the program scheduled for the 26th of April will be focused on high-level discussions with the Indian government and Indian business leaders.
Boris Johnson was invited to be the chief guest for the 72nd Republic Day parade this year, however, he had to decline due to the emergence of a new and more infectious COVID-19 strain back in the United Kingdom. It was for the first time in the last 55 years that India celebrated the Republic Day parade without the presence of an honorable chief guest.
The 1966 Republic Day parade also witnessed the absence of a chief guest due to the demise of then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri on January 11 in Tashkent. Indira Gandhi was sworn in to head the government as the new Prime Minister of India on January 24th, two days prior to the Republic Day celebrations.
As of Wednesday, 2,491 new COVID cases have been reported in the UK taking the total caseload to 4,378,305. With more than 127,000 fatalities, the United Kingdom has the fifth-highest death count in the world from COVID-19.
Meanwhile, India reported more than two lakh new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry updated at 8 AM on Thursday. The active cases witnessed a massive jump of 106,173, taking the total caseload to 1471,877.